Chicago — Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced that a former Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) caseworker pleaded guilty to one count of continuing financial crimes enterprise charges for misappropriating more than $300,000 in assistance for needy families.

Debra Moore, 63, of Baytown, Texas, and formerly of Chicago, pleaded guilty Tuesday before Cook County Judge Lawrence Flood. Judge Flood sentenced Moore to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. She was immediately taken into custody.

Moore was arrested in July 2015 in Chicago after Madigan alleged that Moore, an IDHS caseworker at the Woodlawn Family Community Resource Center, was selling LINK cards and adding unauthorized benefits to accounts of family and friends in exchange for cash payments. Between 2004 and 2013, Moore added more than $300,000 of unauthorized benefits to ineligible recipients, oftentimes in exchange for cash payments.

“The defendant cheated both the taxpayers who fund the programs she was entrusted to manage and those who rely on these vital state services,” Madigan said.

The case was referred to Madigan’s office from the Office of the Executive Inspector General for the Agencies of the Governor (OEIG). The Food and Drug Administration Office of Inspector General (FDA-OIG) assisted in the investigation.

Assistant Attorney General David Navarro and Associate Director James S. Dorger handled the case for Madigan’s Public Integrity Bureau.